Charisa Stories

Month: November 2010

  • Thanksgiving Song

    (This is a reprint from the iPod Devotional that is posted every Monday at theFish.com)

    I love watching the giant balloons of the Macy’s Thanksgiving parade floating through New York as wide-eyed children watch. I love the traditional football games. The official start of the Christmas season. The post feast nap. I love it all and Thanksgiving Day is fast approaching.

    Thanksgiving Song by Mary Chapin Carpenter captures the intimacy of this wonderful holiday.

    Grateful for each hand we hold
    Gathered round this table.
    From far and near we travel home,
    Blessed that we are able.

    Grateful. That is a powerful word that is so easy to overlook in the tension of life and the depressing cycles of usually bad news. I have so much to be grateful for this Thanksgiving. I am grateful for another year with my best friend and bride Joni. I am grateful for three wonderful sons, two amazing daughter-in-laws and one soon to appear grandchild. I am blessed that we are able to be together this Thanksgiving. I am grateful for good friends. I am grateful for the abundant blessings of this country.

    Grateful for this sheltered place
    With light in every window,
    Saying “welcome, welcome, share this feast
    Come in away from sorrow.”

    Every year brings sorrow. Friends and family have suffered illness this year. Some have gone through deep trials. Some have passed away. Sorrow is a part of this journey. But there is something healing about counting blessings and feeling gratitude. Taking that time provides a sheltered place from sorrow. For me the light in the window of my soul is my trust in a God that is faithful, loving and good in blessings and in sorrow.

    Grateful for what’s understood,
    And all that is forgiven;

    Jesus is the light that said welcome when I felt anything but welcome. He invited me to the feast that I did not deserve to attend because of His grace. Jesus said I was forgiven. How can I be anything but grateful if I understand the magnitude of that undeserved love?

    We try so hard to be good,
    To lead a life worth living.

    I might add a little personal clarification to Carpenter’s lyric. I understand the desire to live a life of significance. I get trying to be good. I believe we have a reason for being here. But my experience with the grace of the Lord Jesus has taught me that it is not trying so hard to lead a life worth living that brings peace and joy. It is faithfully following Jesus each day. It is allowing God to love me and asking Him to help me give away that love to others. It is trusting God to provide opportunities to serve. It is believing that God is faithful even through sorrow. It is trusting that what God says about me is true. That I have been changed and I have a new identity in Christ. I am deeply loved and cherished by God. I am declared righteous because of Jesus and that righteousness has nothing to do with how hard I work to be “good”. It is because of Christ. I am so grateful for grace. So very grateful.

    Paul’s words to the Colossian Church make a fitting devotional thought for this holiday.

    Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony. And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

    Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts. And whatever you do or say, do it as a representative of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. (Colossians 3:12-17, NLT)

    I hope you have a blessed Thanksgiving.

  • The Need to be Refined by Fire

    My lovely bride Joni loves pottery so one of my “sacrificial” ways to love her is to accompany her to pottery shops. Guys refer to that as “hitting behind the runner” or “taking the charge”. On a visit to scenic Waco eldest son Matt and daughter-in-love Holly took us to a working craft village called Homestead Heritage. If you visit Central Texas this hidden treasure is worth a trip for the restaurant alone. It is a delightful array of shops that features a working gristmill, cloth weaving and spinning wheels, a real forge and a pottery shed. I was fascinated by the open work area of the pottery shop. There were several artisans making vases and pots right before my eyes. Behind me were shelves of the finished products -colorful and beautiful and functional.

    I watched a potter take a nondescript lump of clay and skillfully make an unique and beautiful creation. The verse from Isaiah came to mind.

    O Lord, you are our Father.
          We are the clay, and you are the potter.
          We all are formed by your hand.  (Isaish 64:8, NIV)

    Suddenly that verse came to life. But the complexity of the potter’s work and her skills made the metaphor really connect for the first time. The forming of the raw material into unique forms is just the beginning of the process. That is how it is with us as unique creations of our Father. He forms us by His hand. Like the pottery in that shop, everyone of us is an original. Sometimes we feel like the nondescript lump that the potter drops on the wheel. But the potter knows there is beauty in that lump of clay just waiting to be developed. Our process is also complex and it has just begun when we first submit to shaping by the Potter’s Hands.

    The potter must make sure that no dirt or impurities are in the clay as he forms the pot. If he finds those impurities he carefully removes them before finishing the shaping. These bad materials will make the pot weak and not useful for it’s intended purpose. God desires to do the same with us. Impurities (sin) weaken us and keep us from our intended purpose.

    The potter must also make sure that air bubbles don’t remain in the clay. Air bubbles can cause the pot to crack when the heat is applied in the kiln. I thought of those air bubbles as pockets of resistance in my life. When I must control my destiny and I won’t trust God. I can appear to be molded to God’s direction. But I have “bubbles” of pride and anger and control. These bubbles of self can cause me to crack under fire.

    The metaphors that Scripture uses are so powerful when we take the time to understand context and culture. I realized that the pot on the potter’s wheel is beautiful but essentially useless when it is initially formed. At this point the piece is called greenware and it is extremely brittle and easily breakable. Two things need to happen to make the pot strong and usable. The clay must go through the fire of the kiln to be strengthened and it must be glazed. An article on pottery at Wikipedia had an interesting parallel to the spiritual metaphor.

    Pottery is made by forming a clay body into objects of a required shape and heating them to high temperatures in a kiln to induce reactions that lead to permanent changes, including increasing their strength and hardening and setting their shape.

    Trials by fire can have that same effect on us as followers of Jesus. Trials can make us stronger and set our shape as His followers. Or the fire of life’s trials can cause us to crack and make us useless for His plan.

    I realized that I am just beginning to really understand that process in my life. I would be content to stay in my greenware state, brittle and not useful for service. But God knows that it is in the fire that we are strengthened and made useful. It is in the heat of trials that the true beauty of our creative process is revealed. And every instance of significant growth in my life has been in the fire of adversity.

    There are a couple of  huge differences between the earthly potter and God as the Potter. When the earthly potter finds a bad piece of clay he will often just discard it. Our Heavenly Potter patiently works with us even when we seem unshapeable and worthless. If careless handling or air bubbles cause an unfired pot to break the pieces are discarded. Only our Heavenly Father can take the shards of brokenness and make a pot more beautiful and useful than before.

    The words of James made more sense in the context of the Potter’s process.

    Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. (James 1:2–3, NIV)

    There is no joy in the trial but there is joy in the knowledge of how God uses such events in our lives. If you are in the trial or facing a trial be comforted that God desires for you to emerge strengthened and beautiful and useful. One potter said that the greatest thing about making pots is that each lump of clay has near-infinite potential. The lump of clay that is me and the lump of clay that is you has infinite potential because we have an infinite God that is patient and good. I pray that we will allow Him to shape us in His image. I pray that we will confess the impurity of sin and ask Him to remove it. I pray that we will burst the bubbles of self that control us. I pray that we will trust the Heavenly Potter as we enter the fire. And most of all I pray that we will not fear the process that God uses to make us beautiful and useful creations. Yield to the Potter and see how beautiful the result can be.